Meatless Mondays: Coconut-Almond Balls

Three or four hours into my juice cleanse, I realized that my veganism would be putting some serious restrictions on my enduring love for pastries, sweets, and all other sugary goodness. So I looked up various vegan recipes, and found this one - Chocolate-covered Dough Balls. Juice cleanse completed, two vegan weeks down, I finally had some time to bake. In the past, when I've tried to cover or dip anything in melted chocolate, I automatically lose. So unlike this recipe, I didn't dip my nut balls in chocolate, maybe I will in the future. However, these were perfectly sweet sans chocolate.

Coconut-Almond Balls

• INGREDIENTS:
• 8 dates, pitted
• 3/4 c. almonds
• 34 c. pecans
• 1 c. shredded coconut, unsweetened
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tbsp. agave nectar
• 1 tbsp. apple sauce
• INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor, put your almonds and pecans. Process until fine like a flour.
3. Add coconut and dates, pulse until somewhat smooth. (It helps if you chop up the dates, you will get a finer texture.)
4. Add vanilla, maple syrup, agave nectar and apple sauce to the food processor. Process until a large ball of dough forms. (If it doesn't seem to form a ball, add more apple sauce, but you shouldn't have a problem.)
5. Roll into one inch balls and place on a cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 8 minutes.